I've bought a new DVD recorder with a hard drive (it's a Sony RDR-HXD870), but when i go to record something from my sky+ box to the dvd rec hdd, the picture is a bit rubbish and there's a ghost image of the same image that's onscreen which drifts across.

any ideas why this is?

the connections go like this:

tv >>> scart >>> sky box >>> scart >>> dvd recorder >>> scart >>> tv.

if that helps at all.

with the picture quality the way it is, it's pointless me recording anything either to the hdd or dvd as it's just rubbish.

it looks almost like there's a loose connection somewhere, but i've checked and everything's in nice and tight.

could it be a gammy scart somewhere in the chain?

It's a poorly screened SCART lead, the one from DVD to TV is the suspect one.

thought that, so swapped it out for hdmi and the problem is just the same.

I go Sky box -> RGB scart -> DVDR -> TV

I suspect you have the video scart on the Sky box going to the DVDR, and that just gives a composite picture.

See if that makes any diffeerence.

the scarts on the sky box are labelled as "vcr scart" and "tv scart". so i've got the tv going into the "tv scart" and then a scart running from "vcr scart" on the sky box to "tv in" on the dvdr. is this not right?

ignore my last post. you were right mate, i just read your reply wrong. i'd got my scarts in the wrong sockets on the tv. i assumed that the top scart would be av1, but no, it's av2. quick switcharoo and i now have perfect picture.

thank you my friend.